Wisdom of Solomon 13

All people who know nothing of God are empty-headed by nature. From the good things that can be seen they gained no power to know the one who truly is, and they did not recognize the craftsman from the works he made.

1Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and could not out of the good things that are seen know him that is: neither by considering the works did they acknowledge the workmaster;

Note"Vain" in 1611 means empty or without substance, not conceited; the Greek word behind it means foolish. "Him that is" renders a Greek phrase for the one who simply exists, the truly existent one, an echo of the name God gives himself in Exodus 3:14, "I AM THAT I AM." "Workmaster" is the older English for a master craftsman or architect.

2Instead they thought that fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or rushing water, or the lights of the sky were the gods that rule the world.

2But deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern the world.

NoteThe list is the standard set of things ancient peoples treated as divine: the four elements of Greek natural philosophy (fire, air, water, and by implication earth) together with the heavenly bodies. "The circle of the stars" is the circuit the constellations appear to make around the sky, the band tracked by ancient astronomy and astrology.

3If it was delight in the beauty of these things that made them take them for gods, let them learn how much better the Lord of those things is, for the first author of beauty created them.

3With whose beauty if they being delighted took them to be gods; let them know how much better the Lord of them is: for the first author of beauty hath created them.

4But if it was their power and force that amazed them, let them understand from those very things how much mightier the one who made them is.

4But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them, how much mightier he is that made them.

Note"Virtue" in 1611 English means power or effective force, the capacity of a thing to do something, not moral goodness.

5For from the greatness and the beauty of created things, their maker is seen in the same measure.

5For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen.

Note"Proportionably" is an old form of "in proportion": the greater the beauty of the thing made, the greater the maker must be. "Creatures" here means created things of every kind, not animals.

6Yet these people are to be blamed less, for perhaps they go wrong while they are looking for God and want to find him.

6But yet for this they are the less to be blamed: for they peradventure err, seeking God, and desirous to find him.

Note"Peradventure" is 1611 English for perhaps or possibly.

7Living among his works, they search hard, and they trust what they see, because the things they look at are beautiful.

7For being conversant in his works they search him diligently, and believe their sight: because the things are beautiful that are seen.

8Even so, they are not to be excused.

8Howbeit neither are they to be pardoned.

9For if they had enough knowledge to take the measure of the world, how is it that they did not find its Lord sooner?

9For if they were able to know so much, that they could aim at the world; how did they not sooner find out the Lord thereof?

Note"Aim at" here means to estimate, reckon or take the measure of. The Greek verb is the one used for forming a conjecture, and the object is the whole ordered universe, so the charge is that people clever enough to work out the cosmos should have worked out its owner.

10But those people are wretched, and their hope is set on dead things, when they call gods the works of human hands: gold and silver worked with skill, and likenesses of animals, or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.

10But miserable are they, and in dead things is their hope, who call them gods, which are the works of men’s hands, gold and silver, to shew art in, and resemblances of beasts, or a stone good for nothing, the work of an ancient hand.

Note"To shew art in" means made so as to display the craftsman's skill. "Resemblances of beasts" points at animal-shaped gods, familiar to the author's readers from Egyptian religion. "The work of an ancient hand" is genuinely open: it can mean a stone carved by someone long dead and prized for its age, or simply a crude old piece of work. The Greek allows both.

11Take a woodcutter who saws down a tree that is easy to handle, skillfully strips off all the bark around it, works it into a fine shape, and makes from it a container that serves a person's daily needs.

11Now a carpenter that felleth timber, after he hath sawn down a tree meet for the purpose, and taken off all the bark skilfully round about, and hath wrought it handsomely, and made a vessel thereof fit for the service of man’s life;

Note"Meet for the purpose" means suited to the job; the Greek word can also mean easily moved or easy to handle. "Vessel" means any container or utensil, not specifically a ship. The whole picture that follows, a workman who cooks his dinner with one part of the log and prays to another, belongs to a Jewish tradition of mocking idol makers found also in Isaiah 44 and Jeremiah 10.

12He burns the leftover pieces from his work to cook his food, and eats his fill.

12And after spending the refuse of his work to dress his meat, hath filled himself;

Note"Refuse" here is the noun, stressed on the first syllable: the scraps and offcuts. "Dress his meat" means prepare his food; in 1611 "meat" means food of any kind, not flesh in particular.

13Then he takes what is left over from those pieces, the part that served no purpose, a crooked piece of wood full of knots, and carves it with care in his idle time. He shapes it with practiced skill and forms it into the likeness of a man,

13And taking the very refuse among those which served to no use, being a crooked piece of wood, and full of knots, hath carved it diligently, when he had nothing else to do, and formed it by the skill of his understanding, and fashioned it to the image of a man;

Note"When he had nothing else to do" renders a pointed Greek phrase, something like "the diligence of his idleness": the care he gives the idol is the care of a man with time on his hands, spent on what was left after the real work was done.

14or makes it like some worthless animal. He coats it with red pigment, paints its surface red, and covers over every flaw in it.

14Or made it like some vile beast, laying it over with vermilion, and with paint colouring it red, and covering every spot therein;

Note"Vile" in 1611 means worthless or of no account rather than disgusting. Vermilion is a brilliant red pigment made from cinnabar, mercury sulfide; red paint was a common finish on cult statues across the ancient world, and here it doubles as a way of hiding the flaws in bad wood.

15He makes a fitting space for it, sets it in a wall, and fastens it there with iron.

15And when he had made a convenient room for it, set it in a wall, and made it fast with iron:

Note"Convenient" in 1611 means fitting or suitable, not handy. "Room" means space: a niche cut into a wall, which is where household gods were commonly kept, fastened so they could not topple out.

16He takes care that it will not fall down, knowing that it cannot help itself, for it is only an image and needs help.

16For he provided for it that it might not fall, knowing that it was unable to help itself; for it is an image, and hath need of help:

17Then he prays about his property, his marriage, and his children, and he is not ashamed to speak to a thing that has no life.

17Then maketh he prayer for his goods, for his wife and children, and is not ashamed to speak to that which hath no life.

Note"Goods" means property and possessions. "For his wife" translates a Greek word meaning marriage, so the prayer is about his marriage itself, a good match or children from it, as much as about the woman.

18For health he calls on something weak. For life he begs something dead. For help he pleads with the thing that is least able to help. And for a good journey he asks something that cannot take a single step.

18For health he calleth upon that which is weak: for life prayeth to that which is dead; for aid humbly beseecheth that which hath least means to help: and for a good journey he asketh of that which cannot set a foot forward:

19And for profit and gain and success in the work of his hands, he asks for strength to act from a thing whose hands have no strength at all.

19And for gaining and getting, and for good success of his hands, asketh ability to do of him, that is most unable to do any thing.

Note"Gaining and getting" is business profit and acquisition. The closing line turns on a pun the English keeps: he asks for the power to act from a thing whose own hands are powerless.